Panang comes in all shapes and sizes—but online food portal Taste Atlas committed a vile abomination against curry and Thailand foodies are not having it. 

 

On Dec 30, a grotesque, miserable looking red curry with slices of lime and peanut garnishes featured on a story voting panang curry the 6th best dish in the world for 2022 on Taste Atlas. The misrepresentation of the dish drew ire from netizens and kickstarted a small food war on its Facebook’s post.

 

“The hell is that, phanaeng from the multiverse? earth-2 phanaeng? I'm Thai and never seen one like that,”(sic) wrote Supalerk Prarukkamanon in response to the disgusting-looking panang.

 

Another Facebook user Nonglak Visittanon joined in the angry protest with:  “Living in Thailand my whole life…never seen a Phanaeng like this picture. Did I get kidnapped without me knowing?????”

 

Compounding their sins, Taste Atlas took 10 days to repost a correct version of panang but with a little side-eye saying their version was, “too much for Thai culinary puritans.”

 

The debacle ended on a friendly note with a request that Thais send panang photos to their website and to let them know about their mistakes. This may help relieve the online anger, but some have pointed out that the platform has lost credibility.